§1What this business is
Kinnow is a mandarin grown mainly in Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana. The fruit is washed and peeled, juice is extracted, mixed with sugar syrup, citric acid and preservative, pasteurised, homogenised and packed. The model unit takes 700 kg of fruit a day and makes 560 kg of juice a day, buying kinnow at ₹20 a kg and selling juice at ₹70 a kg.
Capacity: 560 kg of kinnow juice a day (168 tonnes a year) from 700 kg of fruit, 300 days of 8–10 hours; 60% use in year 2, 70% in year 3 and 80% in year 4.
§2Is it right for you?
Who it is for
A grower group or processor in the kinnow belt of Punjab, Rajasthan or Haryana with local drink distributors.
Who it is not for
Someone who needs a year-round product from one fruit without frozen juice storage.
Advantages
- Kinnow is plentiful and cheap in season — ₹20 a kg in the report
- 80% juice recovery in the report
- Uses small and blemished fruit that fetches little as table fruit
Drawbacks
- Kinnow juice turns bitter quickly, so processing must be careful
- The fruit season is only about three winter months
- Low profit in the report: benefit-cost ratio of just 1.08
Skills you need
- Juice extraction without bitterness
- Blending, pasteurising and homogenising
- Running a packing machine
- Selling to distributors and institutions
Why difficulty 3/5: Ordinary juice line, but a short season and a bitter-prone juice make margins tight.
§3Market
Who buys
- Households
- Hotels, canteens and juice counters
- Retail chains and institutions
How it sells
- Beverage distributors
- Kirana shops and supermarkets
- Direct supply to canteens and hotels
Good to know
- The report takes the selling price at ₹70 a kg.
- Projected sales ₹59.39 L in year 2 rising to ₹103.00 L in year 6.
- The report's Project at a Glance table wrongly names coconut as the raw material — a copying slip; the rest of the report is on kinnow.
§4Raw material & machinery
| Item | Qty | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Cold storage (1,500 kg) | 1 | ₹4.10 lakh |
| Fruit washer (100 kg/hr) | 1 | ₹1.50 lakh |
| Peeling machine (100 kg/hr) | 1 | ₹1.00 lakh |
| Juice extractor (100 kg/hr) | 1 | ₹1.50 lakh |
| Pasteuriser (100 kg/hr) | 1 | ₹2.00 lakh |
| Homogeniser (100 kg/hr) | 1 | ₹2.50 lakh |
| Packaging machinery (2,000 packs/hr) | 1 | ₹6.50 lakh |
| Sugar syrup tank (100 litres/hr) | 1 | ₹1.00 lakh |
| Miscellaneous | 1 | ₹0.10 lakh |
From: NIFTEM-Thanjavur (IIFPT) PMFME model DPR — Kinnow Drink
- Kinnow fruit700 kg a day at ₹20 a kg; 80% recovery
- Sugar250 kg a day at ₹35 a kg
- Citric acid1 kg a day at ₹750 a kg
- Preservatives2 kg a day at ₹301 a kg
- Packaging material500 one-kg packs a day at ₹1.5 each in the report
From: NIFTEM-Thanjavur (IIFPT) PMFME model DPR — Kinnow Drink
§5Licences & registration
- Udyam registration
- GST registration
- FSSAI licence
- Trade licence from the local body
- Consent from the State Pollution Control Board where it applies
Start it in your state
Pick your state: today’s cost, central + state subsidy, raw material, land and help, on one page.
§6Schemes & subsidies
- PMFMECentralUnclear35% subsidy, up to ₹10 lakh
- PMEGPCentralActive15–35% subsidy
- MudraCentralActiveLoan up to ₹20 lakh, no collateral
- CGTMSECentralActiveNo collateral, up to ₹10 crore
Written as a PMFME model; the report's finance plan is subsidy ₹10.00 L, own money ₹6.31 L and term loan ₹15.22 L. The project is within PMEGP's ₹50 L manufacturing ceiling.
§7Money
How the investment is worked out: Land development and building ₹5.00 L + machinery ₹20.20 L + utilities ₹1.00 L + miscellaneous fixed assets ₹0.80 L + pre-operative ₹1.00 L + contingencies ₹2.00 L + working capital margin ₹1.53 L = ₹31.53 L.
Working capital: Running cost is about ₹7.64 L a month (₹30,552 a day) at full capacity; a working capital margin of ₹1.53 L is in the project cost.
Year not printed on the DPR (the PMFME scheme began in 2020) — check current machinery prices.
§8Export potential
Export council / board: APEDA
- Fruit juices are an APEDA processed-food group; the report plans for the home market.
- HS code not checked against the DGFT ITC-HS list here — confirm the code before you ship.
§9Risks — where people fail
- Bitterness or spoilage putting buyers off
- Idle plant outside the kinnow season
- Competition from large juice brands
- Fruit prices rising in a poor crop year
§1030 / 60 / 90-day plan
A general plan that applies to any business. A plan for this business will be added after research.
- Days 1–30: Visit a working kinnow juice drink unit unit, ask 10 buyers about price and quantity, and get quotations from 3 suppliers.
- Days 31–60: Udyam and the licences you need (Udyam registration, GST registration), a project report (DPR), and the scheme or loan file.
- Days 61–90: Space and machines, trial production, and first deliveries to 10 customers.
§11Who to connect with
§12Watch
There is no episode on this business yet. Shows are coming soon on the Podcast page.
Want to start Kinnow Juice Drink Unit?
DPR, loan file or registration — ask us on WhatsApp.
¶Sources
Data review: 6 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Report it. For information only — not legal or financial advice.